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Coureur Des Bois
Coureur Des Bois The phrase Coureur Des Bois is French for "runners of the woods." Young Entrepreneurs "My first entrepreneurial adventure was in 2nd grade when I would buy single Warhead candies for $.05 and sell them at school for $.25-$.50. I invested about $.50 in the start-up and just went to a convenience store about a block from my house for inventory. I made a good bit of cash for a 2nd grader (something around $5 in profit) before parents started complaining to the principal that their kids were spending all of their lunch money on candy." Highs and lows of the coureur des bois The popularity of the trade of coureur des bois among youth alarmed the colony's governor. On April 28, 1654, he forbade anyone to go trade with Natives without getting permission beforehand. He wanted to keep the men close to home in case the colony had to defend itself against Iroquois attack. During a period of peace with the Iroquois, two young Frenchmen obtained permission to leave. Médard Chouart Des Groseilliers, co-founder of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Nicolas Forget dit Despatis set out for the Pays-d'en-Haut. They returned two years later with about 50 canoes loaded with furs. The colony welcomed them as heroes. Buoyed by this success, the number of aspiring coureurs des bois multiplied. Did you know? Coureurs des bois who traded without a permit and against the orders of Louis XIV could expect harsh sentences: *First offence: lashing *Second offence: branding with a fleur-de-lis *Third offence: rowing for the rest of their lives aboard a royal galley. TFO Who were the Coureur des Bois? Samuel de Champlain arranged to have young French men live with the natives, to learn their language and customs and help the French adapt to life in North America. These men, known as coureurs des bois (runners of the woods), extended French influence in the south and the west and in 1609, New France controled all the Canadian Shield. "Coureurs des Bois came from all social ranks and all succumbed to the lure of the wilderness." In 1680, the intendant Duchesneau estimated that there was not one family in New France who did not have a "son, brother, uncle or nephew" among the Coureurs des Bois. It was not just the promise of adventure or the freedom to roam that enticed the Coureur des Bois; it was the profits earned by purchasing valuable pelts from natives in return for European goods. A coureur des bois was an adventurer with many skills, including those of businessman, and of an expert canoeist. They engaged in a range of activities including fishing, snowshoeing and hunting. All these activities depended on skills learned through close contact with the indigenous peoples of North America. Native peoples were essential to the fur trade because they actually trapped the fur-bearing animals (above all beaver) and prepared the skins. The coureurs des bois were purchasers rather than producers of pelts. Often transactions took the form of reciprocal gift-giving. Radisson and his companions, for instance, "struck agreeable relations with Natives inland by giving European goods as gifts". Relations between the coureur de bois and the Natives often included a sexual dimension; marriage "à la façon du pays" (following local custom) was common. Although the term "Coureurs des Bois" is most strongly associated with those who engaged in the fur trade, the most prominent coureurs des bois gained fame as explorers. - Wikipedia VOYAGES OF PETER ESPRIT RADISSON Peter Esprit Radisson was a French colonist who was an early Coureur des Bois who went out in search of trade, furs, and adventure at an early age. He recorded many of his adventures in a series of journals. When he became a criminal in France after not obtaining a liscence, he teamed up with his brother in law to convince the English that there were rich furs in the North for trade. This led to the Hudsons Bay Company. Below is a part of his story: "Here we came without any provisions, where we must lie under a rotten tree. That night it rayned sadly. We weare wett; but a naturall Exercise is good fire. We weare in our boat early in the morning, and with great diligence we came back better then we went up, for the river grewed mighty high by reason of so much that fell of raine. I will not omitt a strange accident that befell us as we came. You must know that as we past under the trees, as before mentioned, there layd on one of the trees a snake with foure feete, her head very bigg, like a Turtle, the nose very small att the end, the necke of 5 thumbs wide, the body about 2 feet, and the tayle of a foot & a halfe, of a blackish collour, onto a shell small and round, with great eyes, her teeth very white but not long. That beast was a sleepe upon one of the trees under which wee weare to goe; neither of us ever seeing such a creature weare astonished. We could not tell what to doe. It was impossible to carry our boat, for the thicknesse of the wood; to shoot att her wee would att least be discovered, besides it would trouble our Company. Att last we weare resolved to goe through att what cost soever, and as we weare under that hellish beast, shee started as shee awaked, and with that fell'd downe into our boat, there weare herbes that served secure us from that dreadfull animal. We durst not ventur to kill her, for feare of breaking of our boat. There is the question who was most fearfull? As for me, I quaked. Now seeing shee went not about to doe us hurt, and that shee was fearfull, we lett her be quiet, hoping shortly to land and to tourne upsid downe of our boat to be rid of such a devill. Then my comrad began to call it, and before we weare out of the litle river our feare was over; so we resolved to bring her to the fort, and when once arrived att the great river, nothing but crosse over it to be neare our fort. But in the mean while a squirrell made us good spoart for a quarter of an houre. The squirrell would not leap into the water; did but runne, being afraid of us, from one end of the boat to the other; every time he came nearer, the snake opened her wide mouth & made a kind of a noise, & rose up, having her 2 fore feet uppon the side of the boat, which persuaded us that shee would leave us. We leaned on that side of the boat, so with our owers thrusted her out; we seeing her swime so well, hasted to kill her with our owers, which shee had for her paines. Radisson's description of this reptile has been shown to one of the most eminent herpetologists in America, who writes that "no such reptile has ever been described by scientific writers." The squirrell tooke the flight, soe we went, longing to be with our comrades to tell them of what we have seene. We found one of our company watching for us att the side of a woode, for they weare in feare least wee should be taken, & expected us all night long. As for their part they neither have seen nor heard anything. Wherefore resolved to goe further, but the news we brought them made them alter their resolution. Wee layd all night in our fort, where we made good cheare and great fires, fearing nothing, being farr enough in the wood." Voyages The Voyageurs The King of France decided that there were too many coureur des bois. To take control, people who wanted to trade fur needed liscences. Those with liscences came to be called Voyageurs, while those without were criminals under the law of New France. The people who traded without a liscence and against the law continued to be called coureur des bois. Colonization How does it link? Not just trade posts, but a trade network. Think about how much of New France came to be because of the beginnings of trade, as well as the link to Hudson Bay Company.